Remedies for recovering from having your wisdom teeth out

Last week, I joined the "wisdom-teeth-out" club. Did you know it exists? Well, it does - I mean, at least it should based on the things you have to experience! (I don't recommend Youtubing 'Wisdom Teeth Removal' - though, truth be told, while I did find it gross, it was also fascinating! In another life, I think it would be interesting to be a surgeon.)


As I know my roommate in college, Kaitlyn would despise it, I won't go into gory detail of the surgery (partly because I don't remember a thing as I was completely knocked out). I do want to note some life lessons and remedies I might offer to those who have this journey ahead of themselves.

Note: post surgery, I don't think I did anything like this:

 
Anyways....

DO'S

• Do have ice packs on hand. I might suggest 4 so you can swap them out in pairs as you cradle your face to ease the swelling. 

  

  I would wrap the ice pack with a paper towel for my face, and hold it with the towel so my hand didn't freeze.

• Do buy 'soft-food-groceries' the day before. I purchased soups (Cream of whatever - you can eventually "graduate" to soups of substance like Chicken and Wild Rice - though I did not eat the Chicken), yogurt, Jello and pudding, fruit and Kale for smoothies and, if your careful, popsicles.
   
  
  
  
• Do rent or gain access to movies - library, Netflix, Hulu, etc. Reading was a hard option as usually both of my hands were busy holding the ice to my face. 
• Do download the app "Over Drive Media". At the recommendation of my sister (heyyo Liv!), I did download this awesome FREE app. It connects you to your library to virtually check out audio books! I've been listening to the Hunger Games (one of the movies I watched) :).
  
• Do take it easy! There would be moments of pent up energy, that would be spent all to quickly doing the most basic things - like changing my ice packs. This was probably the hardest for me to do/be patient with/learn.
• Do take Ibprufen to help with swelling! I...I...I have been a chipmunk for 4 days and wish I would have taken these more often sooner.
• Do rinse your mouth with salt water. For me, it at least made me feel like I was cleaning the area of possible food.

DON'TS

• Don't take your antibiotic and pain medicine (usually Vicodin) at the same time! It causes explosions in your stomach and vomiting will occur. Trust me, I know. Alternate every two hours between the two pills. And need be, cut the Vicodin in half - that helped me a lot!
• Don't eat solid foods. You will miss them but just don't.
• Don't use straws! The vacuum/sucking action of your mouth could cause the sockets in your now empty gum cavity to re-open and not heal as quickly. Praises I avoided that!
• Did I mention don't take your antibiotic and Vicodin at the same time? Cause it's the worst.

Looking back, I really thought I would be in more pain post-surgery. Coming off a busy work schedule this past month, and as inconvienet as having teeth pulled is, I'm pretty confident God knew this would be the best time for me to do it. It forced me to rest, to do nothing, which was hard for me to do. But very needed.